Over 2,000 passengers had been suffering at airports like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, desperately waiting for their baggage, that should have accompanied them when they returned after performing Umra. My old father was one such sufferer of gross mishandling by PIA.
The national airline PIA charges the highest fare per seat per kilometer from passengers going to Jeddah, yet since most of them belong to non-privileged sections of our society, they have never been properly handled. One wonders how can such mishandling take place. The aircrafts, which in this case are Boeing 777s and Boeing 747s have enough underbelly capacity to carry the full load passenger's baggage.
The problem seems to be with management, foreign postings are all being made on considerations other than merit. Unfortunately institutions like PIA have repeatedly been damaged by every sitting government, with some doing more damage than their predecessors. The record Rs 18 billion loss declared by PIA for 6 months period from January to June 2008, testifies to the credentials of those nominated to handle PIA and the merit criteria, or the lack of it, that dominates such appointments.
Nothing seems to change for the better in Pakistan, in spite of the immense talent of educated persons that are being produced by our universities and colleges. What do you expect from PIA, when its management is bent upon abusing their powers, like the recent regularisation of over 4,500 contract staff, although rules require that all such appointments be made strictly on merit through a transparent and well publicised procedure.
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